Rapper Xzibit: Homophobia ‘Part of the Landscape’ in Hip-Hop

xzibit

QUEERTY SELECTS — We’ve been regularly monitoring homophobia in hip-hop, going so far as to identify Hip Hop’s Homophobic Haters. And it’s why we love BET scribe Clay Clane’s interviews, since he regularly asks the music industry’s biggest talents about gay culture and homophobia. Clane’s latest Q&A is with rapper Xzibit, who says of homophobia in hip-hop: “It started as just common place; it was just part of the language. I think the overtones that it creates, is not what really exists. I don’t think if you are gay and you go to a hip-hop club that you’ll get beat up for being gay. That’s not what is going to happen. I think words are the way that people express themselves—just like if you say bitch on a rap record for a long time you can rally thousands of women that will say that’s incorrect. You can’t focus on one single thing or bad aspect of what happens in hip hop and try to blanket it. That’s not the root of the problem. It exists, I think it’s how you portray it, and it’s how you use it. You gotta paint with a broad brush when you talk about homophobia because it’s a lot of things that exist in hip hop that aren’t exactly right, but it’s part of the landscape.” [BET]

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